Every Thursday at 6:30 p.m., footsteps and chatter flood the space as people find their tables.
Some head to the basement to play a Tolkienesque game with elves and dwarves while others stay on the first floor to cast spells and summon creatures. The sound of over 60 people rolling dice and sliding cards across tables takes over the building.
“We get people from all over Milwaukee,” said Ben Checota. “They all get to see what everybody else is playing. It’s like a book club, where you have ten people from ten different backgrounds, and each one gets to recommend a book, so they all get exposed to what everyone else is doing.”
From Magic: The Gathering to Pokémon, from Blood Bowl to Warhammer 40k, this store has something for everyone. Located on Milwaukee’s East side, Old Guard Games (OGG) is a gamer’s heaven that specializes in tabletop role-playing games, board games, cards, books and minifigures. OGG hosts weekly gaming events for people of all ages and levels such as Magic: The Gathering Thursdays, Battletech meetups, MTG Draft Nights, Necromunda meetups and YuGiOh tournaments.
The owner, Checota, is a long-term game lover that is curating a welcoming hub for hobby-obsessed Milwaukeeans. His store also hosts UWM club meetings for Magic: The Gathering Club, Chess Club, Board Game Club and more.
Since opening its doors in 2024, Checota has been curating a hangout spot where people can sit, play with friends, meet new people or learn a new game. He owns the property that houses OGG and Top-Tier Hair Studio. For a few months, the store right in between was vacant, and to complete his hangout concept, he needed a coffee shop.
“I didn’t want to put in a Starbucks or Dunkin’ or some chain,” said Checota. “I wanted something with some character. So, I asked everybody I knew on Facebook, ‘what’s a great local place?’ And Valentine was just the one that kept coming up.”
When Valentine Coffee moved in two years ago, OGG was seeing a lot more walk-in foot traffic. During the spring, summer and fall seasons, tables are placed out front and people can borrow board games for free.
“We call it the Old Guard Cafe, we have cribbage boards, checkers, chess, dominos, and backgammon,” said Checota. “So, if you want to come in, we’ll just hand you one of these, you sit out there, you grab a coffee, you wait for your haircut.”
The Beginning
Before opening OGG in 2024, Checota was hired in the exact same building when it was Follett’s Books at just 14 years old. After working on a resume with his mom, Checota went in, he got hired on the spot.
Turns out, his position was “the guy who told students that the book they paid $100 for was now worth $20 three months later,” according to Checota.
“I was lambasted and yelled at for two weeks. That’s why they hired me,” he said.
In a time where people secretly played Dungeons & Dragons because “it wasn’t accepted,” Ben Checota found community at Napoleon, a beloved game store that operated on the east side. Napoleon had a special community feel to it, where your background was not relevant.
“It was this place that brought together all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds: UWM professors, cops, garbage men, business men and students,” said Checota. “All these people would never have had any connection. It brought them together. I always loved that about it.”
Napoleon closed in 2005. Checota was determined to bring back the spirit of community that he found at Napoleon where anyone could come together for a night of games.
The Future
Checota says that gaming has “always been a sanctuary for people” and is eager to spread its impact to younger generations.
Old Guard Games strives to be a welcoming sanctuary for experience and new gamers. If interested in checking out the space or learning a new game, just ask. Staff can get newcomers set up with a card deck or entered into a community game.
Instead of scrolling on social media all day, youth can get involved in table-top games that teach strategy and problem solving skills such as chess. By hanging out at the store, people can socialize, bond with like-minded people and have a unique experience while doing it, according to Checota.
“You got a store that’s really cool with tons of different people playing tons of different games,” he said. “It’s an experience rather than just a … bleh. We want to keep expanding, we want to make bigger and better events for people.”